1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to binding of books and, in particular, to a new and improved binding for loose pages, signatures and books.
2. Description of Related Art
Various means have been used in the past to bind books. One commonly used method is to sew the signature sheets together using sewing machines of various types. Such a method is inherently slow and expensive. Another method has been the gluing of the spine ends of the sheets together, preferably to a tape. One disadvantage of such methods is the fact that it requires time for the glue to set and further that the binding is weak. A still further method has been stapling the sheets together with metal staples. Rigid metal posts have been used in such books as accounting books, but these have been very heavy and expensive for loose-leaf purposes.
Attempts at improving bookbinding have been made over the heretofore-mentioned devices and methods. For example, bookbinding is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,013 issued Jan. 18, 1983 to William H. Abildgaard et al. by plastic studs which fit through holes vicinal one margin of each sheet and strips which are fixed to the ends of the studs. The studs may be formed in the matching strip or strips to receive the stud ends. Excess stud lengths are sheared and headed to lock the strips and interposed sheet in position.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,906 to William H. Abildgaard, issued Jan. 23, 1987 a pair of strips are used for binding with one of the strips having longitudinally spaced flexible plastic studs and the other having holes complementary to the spacing of the studs adjacent one or more grooves into which the bent over studs may be inserted, and also provided with retaining means for holding the studs in bent over position.
Some hot melt finishing devices do a good job of holding pages together to produce a professionally appearing book. However, because of the relatively inflexible nature of the adhesive and adhesive finding it's way between individual sheets, the bound book does not lay flat when opened. The pages tend to close upon themselves to produce a large bend at the spine. Customer surveys indicate that they would like lay-flat binding at a low cost similar to the GBC “Cerloc,” spiral wire bind, or dual bind. These binding devices penetrate holes in the paper in order to enable the lay-flat feature. They also require pre-punching the individual sheets with a particular hole pattern, or punching un-punched paper on-line. Pre-punched paper is expensive and on-line punching creates paper dust, hole fragments, and noise. In addition, the binding material, whether it is a plastic comb, plastic spiral wire, single or dual wire, is expensive. A staple is very inexpensive, but it does not produce a lay-flat book.
Hence, there is still a need for a binding system that can produce thick, bound, lay-flat books that are inexpensive and may or may not use pre-punched sheets.